Paula Parrish
Special to The Record
September 06, 2005 6:15 AM
His face, when he crossed the finish line 48 years ago, could have come straight out of "Happy Days." Even when he was straining on his last steps to become the first American to break the four-minute mile, Don Bowden looked like he lived right next to Richie Cunningham -- innocent, fresh-faced, boy-next-door.
It was 1957, a time of unquenchable optimism inAmerica. The Greatest Genera-tion had survived the Great Depression and driven back Hitler, one of the most horrific madmen the world has known, along with Imperialist Japan. What couldn't we Americans do? What couldn't we accomplish, if we simply tried? The space race was about to begin. Race relations were just starting to heat up, with the civil rights movement in its infancy.
Elvis was just ascending his throne. Even with fears from the Cold War looming, middle-class America was blossoming while watching "I Love Lucy" and "Gunsmoke." G.I. Bill college graduates were jumping on career tracks everywhere, in everything from industry to science and politics.
1955-1959 Through the Eyes of Paula Parrish
Most famous song: Rock around the Clock
Era's athletic icon: Jackie Robinson
Favorite saying: Get bent!
New invention: Videotape recorder
Quote: "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody." -- Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront (1954)
Biggest movie: Rebel Without a Cause
Most popular TV show: Gunsmoke
What was hot: Poodle skirts
What was not: Walter O'Malley (Owner of the Dodgers, which he moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles)
I remember
• 1957: Sputnik reaching space.
• 1955: Cy Young passing away.
• 1955: Elvis, yes that Elvis, making his first TV appearance.
• 1955: Martin Luther King Jr. leading the Montgomery bus boycott.
• 1958: Tibet's Dalai Lama escaping to India.
Year by year
• 1955 athlete of the year: Howard "Hopalong" Cassady
• Team of the year: Brooklyn Dodgers
• 1956 athlete of the year: Mickey Mantle
• Team of the year: Soviet Union Summer Olympic Team
• 1957 athlete of the year: Ted Williams
• Team of the year: North Carolina men's basketball
• 1958 athlete of the year: Repeat Wimbledon champion Althea Gibson
• Team of the year: LSU and Iowa football
• 1959 athlete of the year: Ingemar Johansson
• Team of the year: Syracuse football
In sports, America's national pastime was still baseball, with Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, and Brooklyn fans mourning the loss of the Dodgers to Los Angeles.
In track and field, Briton Roger Bannister had broken the four-minute mile on May 6, 1954. For the next three years, no American could mirror that feat. Then, Don Bowden, a 20-year-old middle distance runner at Cal, stepped onto the track at Baxter Stadium where the northwest side of the University of the Pacific campus is today for the Pacific Association-AAU meet.
"No American had run it, so there was always a lot of talk about why not and when it was going to happen," Bowden, now 69, said by phone from his home in Saratoga.
Bowden remembers that cool Stockton summer evening clearly.
"It was June 1, 1957," Bowden said. "I had just driven to Stockton after taking a final exam. I was primarily a half-miler, that was my best event.
"But this was my last chance to run the mile, because from there on out, I would be concentrating on the half-mile. My coach the legendary Brutus Hamilton said, 'Let's give it a try and see if you can do it.'"
Earlier that spring, Bowden had run a 4:01.6 in the mile as the anchor for Cal's medley relay team.
"My coach was giving me the breakdown lap times every time around, so I knew," Bowden said. "Then, as I was coming down the backstretch, the announcer started encouraging the crowd, telling them I was on pace to break the four-minute mile. It was just a beautiful night. Everything came together."
His time? 3:58.7.
According to the story in The Record by reporter Al Goldfarb, "Bowden stepped off the feat without the benefit of even being pushed. Only the public address announcer and the crowd of about 3,500 urged him on, while the closest man to him finished 80 yards back and crossed the finish line about 15 seconds later. He seemed barely winded at the finish."
The previous fastest American mile had been run by Wes Santee 4:00.5.
Bowden had lap times of 59.7, 61.1, 59.8 and 58.1.
Today, there's a plaque honoring Bowden's accomplishment on the south side of the student dining hall that sits in the middle of the ring of residence halls at UOP. Like historical markers everywhere, it's barely, if ever, noticed by the UOP students who rush by every day, slamming Cokes or adjusting backpacks. But once last week, while a reporter was watching, a young woman paused and looked into the shade, toward the red brick wall where the plaque hangs. She squinted -- but then her cell phone rang and she walked away.
So much for a history lesson.
Bowden was the first American and the youngest man at that time to break the four-minute mile, an American record that he held for almost three years.
Today, Bowden is semi-retired. He owns an export business for sports construction materials like surfaces for tennis courts. A race bearing his name was held here in Stockton in 2001-2003. Last summer, he was among 17 renowned milers honored at a fete in Washington, D.C., that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Bannister's first sub-four-minute mile.
"All of them here are sub-four-minute milers and when those guys ran a sub-four-minute mile, a sub-four-minute mile was a big deal," said U.S. runner Alan Webb, in an interview with The Washington Post during the event.
Webb won the 1,500 meters in last year's Olympic Trials. International meets, like the Olympics and world championships, use the metric system and host the 1,500, not the mile.
In 2001, Webb broke Jim Ryun's 36-year old national high school record in the mile 3:53.43.
"Being here makes me feel like I'm part of the club," Webb said.
Besides Bowden, Webb and Santee, another member of the sub-four-minute club who was there that night last year was Craig Masback, the chief executive officer of USA Track & Field.
"Given the fact that more than 50 years since the first sub-four-minute mile, we still celebrate an athlete's first time under that barrier, Don's achievement remains remarkable," Masback said last week. "As the first American to break four, Don's place in American track and field history is significant and secure. He ushered in an area of great American miling that included an American becoming the first man, Jim Beatty, to break four minutes indoors and was followed by two legends, Jim Ryun and Marty Liquouri.
"At a personal level, when I moved from the 1/2 mile to the mile as a college junior, I used the experiences and stories of those milers who came before me for education and inspiration. Don, too, moved from the 1/2 mile to the mile in college, and his 3:58.7, which made him the third-fastest miler ever when he ran it, was remarkable in part because he ran it on the same day that he took a final exam in Berkeley. For an athlete like myself, who aspired to be a student and an athlete throughout my career, Don was and is a true role model."
Bowden often is asked about his historic night in Stockton almost a half a century ago.
"My mother was always curious about it, because she couldn't see how something that happened so long ago, that people keep talking about it," he said, laughing. "But she said she was glad they did. It's been a lot of fun for me."